Biomimetic Nanotechnology Insights for Growing Technical Devices in Functional Shape (invited lecture)

Abstract

Currently, there is a huge difference between growth in organisms on the one hand and the production of technical devices, buildings, textiles and further human produce on the other hand. Growing man-made devices in functional shape, with locally available materials and using water-based chemistry at ambient conditions, that additionally serve as food or fertilizer at the end of their lifetime, is still a challenge for nanoscientists. Plants, animals and microorganisms, on the other hand, excel in this realm – the natural nanoscience of growth is still unsurpassed. Multiple non-plant organisms have developed ways to manipulate the growth of plants to their advantage. Gall wasps for example chemically and locally reprogram plant cells that then grow into shapes that are based on functional nanostructures providing shelter and food for the wasps offspring. Biomimetic transfer of such approaches from gall wasps to the human sphere shall pave our way to a new type of growth-based nanoscience. The invited lecture gives an overview of the related biological control of growth in plants by parasites and introduces plant growth simulation algorithms and computer-based approaches that simulate the growth of leaves into the development of gall-like structures – a first and important step in the direction of controlled growth of technical devices in functional shape.